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Who really said it

This is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put

Not Churchill — an anonymous 1941 newspaper joke Unknown earliest printing: 31 July 1941
Disputed Rights unconfirmed

The joke first appears in The West Sussex Gazette on 31 July 1941, told about an unnamed high-school English master — no Churchill, and no ‘bloody.’ The punchline was simply “a thing up with which I will not put.” Churchill’s name was first attached to it in October 1943, and the version quoted today accumulated its embellishments after that.

Last verified 20 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“This is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put” …a thing up with which I will not put. —Author unknown, The West Sussex Gazette, 31 July 1941. Commonly misattributed to Winston Churchill.

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Winston Churchill. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

We couldn’t verify where this wording comes from, so there’s no rights status to give. Safe to present as an unverified or anonymous line — just don’t assert a specific author or source.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of Winston Churchill — British prime minister, statesman & Nobel laureate in Literature. Theme: "This is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "This is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The source

Earliest printing
The West Sussex Gazette, 31 July 1941
Original protagonist
An unnamed high-school English master
Churchill's name attached
October 1943, a Nottingham newspaper
Author
Unknown

…a thing up with which I will not put. West Sussex Gazette, 1941

The 1941 punchline in full. Everything people love about the modern version — ‘bloody nonsense,’ the imperious tone, Churchill himself — was added over the following five years.

Quote Investigator — the 1941-to-1946 chain

How we traced it

  • The oldest known appearance is The West Sussex Gazette, 31 July 1941: an anonymous joke about an unnamed English master correcting a pupil, with the punchline ‘a thing up with which I will not put.’ No Churchill, no expletive Quote Investigator ↗.
  • In May 1942 The Strand Magazine retold it under the title ‘The End of a Sentence,’ now set in a government department. Only on 9 October 1943 does a Nottingham newspaper tag the punchline ‘W.S.C.’ — the first Churchill connection, two years after the joke was already in print antedating thread ↗.
  • Linguists who have examined it regard the attribution as spurious — and note the further irony that the ‘rule’ the joke mocks was never a rule Churchill campaigned against Language Log ↗.

Free to use. The joke is anonymous, first printed in a 1941 British newspaper, and a punchline of this length is not protectable by copyright in any case; there is no rights holder to clear. As with the other Churchill red herrings, the only real exposure is the credit line — do not print it over his name on something you sell. This is not legal advice.

Fact-check

The attribution problem

This is a rare case where the whole life of a misattribution is documented in dated newspapers: the joke, the drift, the moment a name gets attached, and the embellishments that follow.

Not Winston Churchill joke predates the attribution

The joke is in print in July 1941 about an unnamed schoolmaster. Churchill’s initials are first attached in October 1943 — two years later, and to a story that already existed without him chain ↗.

‘bloody nonsense’ later embellishment

The 1941 punchline is plain: ‘a thing up with which I will not put.’ ‘This is the sort of bloody nonsense,’ ‘errant pedantry’ and the rest are decorations added as the story travelled — they make it sound more like Churchill, which is the point.

The ‘rule’ itself myth mocking a myth

The joke lampoons a prohibition on ending sentences with prepositions that was never a real rule of English. So a fake quotation is used to ridicule a fake rule — and is quoted approvingly by people making a valid point about grammar Language Log ↗.

Author unknown. First printed 31 July 1941 in The West Sussex Gazette, about an unnamed English master; Churchill’s name was attached in October 1943 full chain ↗.

Context

Why it resonates

The joke works by obeying the rule so violently that the sentence collapses — you cannot avoid a stranded preposition here without producing gibberish, which is the argument. It is a genuinely good piece of grammatical satire, whoever wrote it.

Attaching it to Churchill improves the performance rather than the point. A prime minister scrawling it in a margin is funnier than a schoolmaster saying it, so that is the version that survived.

The joke was already two years old before anyone thought of Churchill.

How the story grew, 1941 to 1946

31 July 1941, West Sussex Gazette: an unnamed English master — ‘a thing up with which I will not put.’

May 1942, The Strand Magazine: retitled ‘The End of a Sentence,’ now set in a government department.

9 October 1943, Nottingham newspaper: the punchline is tagged ‘W.S.C.’ for the first time.

1946, Washington Post: the fully Churchillized anecdote, embellishments and all.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Truth Humility

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

This Is the Sort of Bloody Nonsense Up With Which I Will Not Putquoteinvestigator.com

The dated chain: 1941 Sussex newspaper, 1942 Strand, the 1943 ‘W.S.C.’ tag, and the fully-Churchillized 1946 version.
Antedating thread — 1942 attestationlistserv.linguistlist.org

American Dialect Society researchers establishing that the joke predates the earliest Churchill attribution.
A misattribution no longer to be put up withitre.cis.upenn.edu

Language Log on why the attribution is spurious — and why the grammatical ‘rule’ being mocked is itself a myth.

The misattributed figure

Why it gets pinned on Churchill

Winston Churchill

1874–1965 · British prime minister, statesman & Nobel laureate in Literature

Sir Winston Churchill won the Nobel Prize in Literature and was famously exacting about prose — he really did send memoranda demanding brevity and plain English. That reputation is exactly what made him the natural host for a joke about pedantic grammar-correction, and it is why the anonymous 1941 version was, within two years, being told about him instead.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

“…a thing up with which I will not put.” The West Sussex Gazette, 31 July 1941. Anonymous; told of an unnamed English master.

MLA (9th ed.)

“A Thing Up With Which I Will Not Put.” The West Sussex Gazette, 31 July 1941. Author unknown.

APA (7th ed.)

A thing up with which I will not put. (1941, July 31). The West Sussex Gazette. (Author unknown)

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘up with which I will not put’?” Last verified 20 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/this-is-the-sort-of-bloody-nonsense-up-with-which-i-will

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